Rand Paul: 'Very unseemly' that president decides drone strikes

2/10/13 9:23 AM EST

Sen. Rand Paul says there must be a review process before a president can authorize drone strikes on U.S. citizens.

“It’s very unseemly that a politician gets to decide the death of an American citizen," the Kentucky Republican said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." "They should answer about this 16-year-old boy, al-Awlaki’s son, that was killed, not in collateral damage but in a separate strike. They never answered that. I think you should be tried for treason if you’re an American citizen, you go overseas and you take up arms. I’m probably for executing you but I want to hear the evidence.”

Paul said he won't vote to confirm John Brennan as CIA director until Brennan clarifies his answer about whether U.S. citizens can legally be killed by drone strikes within the United States.

“The president, a politician, Republican or Democrat, should never get to decide someone’s death by flipping through some flash cards and saying, ‘You want to kill him? Yeah, let’s go ahead and kill him,'" Paul said.